Bank Nationalization in Venezuela

A New York Times dispatch on bank nationalization in Venezuela reports that "Despite" the efforts by President Hugo Chavez "to assert greater state control over the economy, corruption in Venezuela is thriving by various measures." The word "despite" implies that this is somehow unexpected or puzzling, and that ordinarily more government control over the economy would lead to less corruption. In fact precisely the opposite is true, and the formulation discloses the assumptions of the Times reporter and editors.